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A friend of mine was going to put a lot of money into a MacBook saying she thought it was worth the money just for the "wow" factor. (She isn't computer saavy). I asked her what exactly the wow factor is, and she basically summarized it as "Macs are better at graphics.". Which, I told her that technically a PC machine now adays is pretty much equal in all aspects. The old "edges" it used to have over a PC machine have pretty much melded together.

Video cards are more or less cross compatible, (MacBook pros using the ATI 1600 mobile, PC's do too), chipsets are relatively close now with the Intel change, high quality graphical software (Adobe namely, but just overall processing time of graphics) runs the same right now on both machines (assuming the software universal is introduced) or the performance boost isn't HUGE. You know?

Now if we talk about Operating System stability (which isn't really a performance debate, but more a reliability one) DEFINITELY OS X has the obvious winner over the XP line of windows.

I was just trying to let her know, what you overall are paying (from what I understand) for a high quality mac laptop over a high quality PC laptop is you're buying QUALITY (and overall STABILITY), but not neccessarily PERFORMANCE. It's like a BMW vs. an economy car, both will go the same mileage more or less on the road (aka: Doing processing), but you'll pay more for the BMW, there's more likelyhood of the economy car breaking down...

The big debate used to be that Windows XP was more software compatible. HOWEVER, with Macs now being able to run XP flawlessly, that debate now goes "Wait, you can have best of both worlds! Pay a little extra, get a package deal of both operating systems!"

But I just wanted to let her know some of the downsides or clarify that just because you have a Mac doesn't neccessarily mean you're going to have more "wow" over a PC, especialyl when doing presentations and such....

Unless Keynote is OSX only and the best thing out there for quick and pretty presentations.. Which hey! may be the case.

You're paying more for a system that runs Keynote, pretty much! And a slick looking OS... (unless you find yourself using XP most of the time).

mac: a waterproof raincoat made of rubberized fabric
MAC: a data communication protocol sub-layer, also known as the Media Access Control
Mac: a brand name which covers several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc.

Mac OS X is more than just prettiness over an above XP. There's stability, but the thing I like best is just how much it gets out of the way. Stuff that has taken a million clicks in Windows with much cursing can be achieved in seconds with a drag and drop on the mac. One of the reasons it's better for graphics is the user interface. The explorer concept isn't great when you have lots of toolbars and stuff floating about.

your second question sounds like something you should search the forums for and then create a seperate thread on. these two topics are completely unreltated and you will get more help after some research and a new thread

A friend of mine was going to put a lot of money into a MacBook saying she thought it was worth the money just for the "wow" factor. (She isn't computer saavy). I asked her what exactly the wow factor is, and she basically summarized it as "Macs are better at graphics.". Which, I told her that technically a PC machine now adays is pretty much equal in all aspects. The old "edges" it used to have over a PC machine have pretty much melded together.

Well, the general consensus with most graphic designers and imaging professionals is that Macs are more optimized for color accuarcy, especially in digital proofing color workflows.
It also used to be the case that graphics applications ran a lot faster on a Mac. But as you have pointed out, that gap is closing.
The other thing to consider is that most color reproduction and pre-press professionals and printers, etc. are still set up for Macs and are more used to dealing with Mac related issues as opposed to Windows.

So, in that respect, Macs are still better for professional graphics work.

mac: a waterproof raincoat made of rubberized fabric
MAC: a data communication protocol sub-layer, also known as the Media Access Control
Mac: a brand name which covers several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc.

Well I've gotten decently good at Keynote, and even Pages. I work for a law firm and they overall don't have anyone who is really computer saavy. I recently received a promotion and created a manual for the person who was going to take my old position. I did it all in pages and showed it to my boss in PDF format. She was highly impressed, and last friday I brought my Mac Mini in to show off some of the easy stuff it does.

I created a 1 hour KeyNote presentation, using most of the slick transitions it does,making a law-like environment theme and with a 9 slide presentation, she asked me : "How much did it cost?" ... now she's going to be buying the company a MacBook, along with the iWork studio and I'm in charge of doing a collections manual (in pages) and making presentations for all the lawyers in Keynote.

So thank you guys for your suggestions and showing me Keynote, it got me an overtime job and a way to use a mac at work.